It’s Now Time to Unfollow the Donald Once and for All
Let’s close this chapter of our lives for good
Last time I checked, Donald Trump had at least 88 million followers. I was one of those 88 million, so technically I was a Trump follower, but not really a “follower-follower” per se. And I don't support him one bit.
My reasoning for following ‘The Donald’ can only be explained by a line from my second favorite comedian, John Mulaney:
“ It’s like there’s a horse loose in a hospital. I think eventually, everything’s gonna be okay, but I have no idea what’s gonna happen next. And neither do any of you![…] It’s never happened before. No one knows what the horse is gonna do next, least of all the horse. He’s never been in a hospital before. He’s just as confused as you are. When a horse is loose in a hospital you gotta stay updated. ”
— John Mulaney
*whenever I read the above line, it always ends up sounding like John Mulaney in my head*
It’s been a rough four years. The decision in itself of putting the horse — sorry — Trump as a presidential candidate was bizarre enough to begin with. Before the republicans championed him, he was telling the American people about an old conspiracy theory concerning President Barack Obama’s supposedly sketchy ancestry; believers and promoters of these were dubbed “birthers”. He was already spreading lies and misinformation long before he became president. Even the former republican senator and war hero, John Mccain corrected his own supporters about Obama’s ancestry. Sadly, this was not Trump’s first lie, nor will it be his last. In 2011, Barack Obama would later subtly diss at trump through a White House Correspondents’ Dinner — with Trump present. This clearly infuriated Trump as he was seen as a laughing stock by the majority of the attendants. However, I think that was the turning point. The Donald would later run for presidency under the Republican Party. The Democrats had no clue that they were dealing with a narcissistic monster. So they underestimated him; they probably thought that no decent american is idiotic enough to vote for this guy and believe what he says. Well, they were wrong, they should’ve taken clues from Green Day’s 2004 song, American Idiot.
At first, The Donald didn’t seem to have anything special on him. He’d play it safe and read the scripts that were provided of him by the Republican Party. But this was boring and wasn’t enough to overthrow Ted Cruz, who was the other nominee at the time. So he improvised and went loose with his ramblings in front of the press. And the media erupted. He essentially took control.
Eventually, the Donald didn’t need to do a lot anymore in order to gain followers. He’d just say the most absurd things and the most blatant lies, and people would believe him. He even stole the infamous and most iconic line from The Newsroom, “Make America Great Again”, and twisted it to fit into his own narrative. These MAGA hats and merchandise were a big hit selling on Alibaba. I’d often spot asian people in the background of Texas news segments that sold these merchandise and they were probably thinking, “haha suckers”. What a genius way of leveraging from chaos. All these combined were already effective enough to ignite deep-seeded racist ideologies among the ignorant republican and rural voters. The tweets and lies took a life of their own. They resonated with millions of unhappy americans who were constantly under their own twisted version of victimhood. Immigrants and people of colour have always been viewed as the great “other”and Trump Exploited this. He was unstoppable.
It seemed like anything he does or says won't have any inherent consequences. He called Mexicans “rapists”, he called African nations “shitholes”, he called every news agency that called on his nonsense as “Fake news” — besides Fox News of course, he told this guy (I can’t remember) to “grab ’em by the pussy”. He called the new coronavirus a “hoax” perpetrated by democrats. The list goes on.
And this was the status quo for the majority of his four-year reign. In these four years, America would see a spike in mass shootings with nine of the most deadliest ones occurring under his term. This includes the deadliest in history, which was the 2017 Las Vegas Shooting. The past four years also brought forth trade wars between America, China and the rest of the members of NAFTA. Trump would then get rid of decades-worth of environmental data from the EPA, data that scientists and monitors worked hard for, all so he can push for his “clean” coal deals and cripple any resistance from climate change leaders. He would also threaten to break off from NATO. A goal that is at the forefront of Russian propaganda.
The mighty Republican party who once fought against slavery is now run by millionaire thugs. The last ounces of sportsmanship and decency in the Republican party have now died along with John Mccain — who was sadly called a “loser” by Donald Trump.
There is an actual compiled and comprehensive list of 964 atrocities committed by Trump. The catalog entitled, Lest We Forget the Horrors: A Catalog of Trump’s Worst Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes was compiled by John Mcmurtrie, Ben Parker, Stephanie Steinbrecher, Kelsey Ronan, Amy Sumerton, Rachel Villa, and Sophia DuRose,
and is available in the internet via the link below. It’s an absurd and morbid way to reminisce and pass time, so I highly recommend reading it on your most leisurely hour.
My firsthand conversation of a Trump supporter was in 2016 when an American girl visiting from Georgia state came into the shop that I worked in. Being a Canadian, I was very ignorant of how Americans see the world back then. I didn’t know that there were partisan movements that blindly follow whatever their leaders says. It was more or less a religion to them. If I could squeeze any form of positivity from this though, it would be their unity. I knew it was taboo to question others who they’re gonna vote for, but I asked her anyway thinking I might get a pass since I’m not American. I asked if she was gonna vote for Hillary, she responded with “I’m voting for Trump, I can’t stand that woman”, and then she left the store.
The Donald has lost, but the narcissist is incapable of seeing it that way. Even on his way out, he keeps lashing out on his twitter feed. A delusional individual and a sore loser. His narcissistic disorder is so notorious that even within his own family tree, Mary Trump — his niece, wrote a book about it titled, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.
“I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!”,
I like to think of this as his famous last words before Joe Became president.
Majority of known human history has been written in books, told in anecdotes and stories that are passed from generations to generations, however in the modern times, everything is now recorded, accounted for, and written on the internet for everyone to see. The moment the horse steps down will be a historic moment in itself, as well as Kamala Harris becoming the first woman — let alone — colored woman as the US vice president. And I will never forget the hours I spent staring at the electoral map of the 2020 US presidential elections from november 03 to 07, as well as the celebration and the chaos that ensued afterwards.
After Joe Biden won, John Mulaney posted this on Twitter, and I couldn’t contain my laughter and joy.
Democracy has been restored for now, but I fear that the Republicans have figured out what type of political weaponry they can effectively use to win the next elections, and this in itself is already terrifying to think of. Their next candidate might be even worse than the Donald. But for now, that White House Correspondents’ Dinner has gone full circle and I’m officially done with that orange horse.
thanks for reading
